Washington (CNN) - Hawaii's newest senator was nominated, appointed, and sworn into his seat so quickly he had to scramble to get himself ready for the red-eye flight to Washington.

"I bought this coat yesterday," Brian Schatz told reporters after landing on the mainland dressed in an overcoat - hardly necessary in Hawaii, where temperatures were in the low 70s on Thursday.FULL POST

(CNN) – It’s one of those legislative showdowns where every vote could count and any vote not cast could be decisive.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid called on Saturday for Hawaii’s Democratic governor to appoint “with due haste” a successor to the late Sen. Daniel Inouye, then the body’s most senior member, who died Monday at age 88.FULL POST

(CNN) - The partisan gridlock in Washington came to a halt Thursday morning as members of both parties gathered to bid farewell to the late Sen. Daniel Inouye, the second longest serving senator in U.S. history.

"Dan was a vibrant and vital presence in the Senate, and in death he'll remain a legend," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said at a ceremony held in the Capitol Rotunda.FULL POST

(CNN) – The remains of Sen. Daniel Inouye from Hawaii arrived in Washington Thursday to lie in state in the Rotunda of the United States Capitol. Vice President Joe Biden and congressional leaders delivered remarks at the arrival ceremony.

Inouye was awarded the Medal of Honor for actions during World War II and represented Hawaii in the Senate for five decades. The Democratic senator died Monday at the age of 88 after being hospitalized for "respiratory complications."

He won his ninth consecutive term in 2010 and was the second-longest-serving member of the Senate in its history, trailing only Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia. Inouye was a senator for all but three of Hawaii's 53 years as a state and had served as its first House member before that.